Two girls from HHCA, one from Thomas Heyward join up on clay shooting team

The name couldn't have been more fitting for Kelly Humes and her new teammates.

The group -- which came together last month in anticipation of the U.S. Junior Open -- was forced to compete under a new name at the sporting clays championship, seeing as how the members didn't all attend the same school.

Enter, "Guns N Roses." An appropriate name, indeed.

"None of us are always out there shooting a gun every day," Humes said. "We still like to do girls stuff, like shopping. But we definitely love shooting sporting clays.

"So it kind of represents us well."

Humes and fellow teammate Kerry Davis shot clays for Hilton Head Christian Academy last year before teaming up with Thomas Heyward Academy's Samantha Jones for the annual event, which was held June 14-16 in Georgetown. It was Jones' father, Phil, who helped get the group together after reaching out to Eagles coach Fuzzy Davis.

The group, behind the guidance of the two fathers/coaches, practiced just twice at the Turkey Hill Plantation in Ridgeland before heading up the coast.

"We've actually become pretty close. I'd like to call them good friends," Samantha Jones said. "They're just great, fun, outgoing people and it was great shooting with them. I feel like we really connected and made a great team."

The lack of practice didn't seem to have an adverse effect, as Guns N Roses' combined two-day score of 366 earned the group a second-place showing in the Ladies Varsity Division.

"I knew after practicing with Sammy and Kerry a couple times, I thought we might have a shot at winning something," said Humes, who will attend Furman University in the fall. " ... I was a little bit surprised at how we ended up doing, just because there were a lot of girls there. And it was a fairly hard course."

Jones was simply glad to be there. The rising sophomore embraced her new teammates once she couldn't cobble together a Thomas Heyward team of her own.

"Ever since I was a little girl, I've always wanted to go hunting with my daddy," she said. "I love this opportunity that everybody can do this.

"You go to these shoots and you see these little 10-year-olds carrying these big shotguns, you get kind of nervous," she added, laughing. "But they're perfectly safe and they have some of the best scores."

She is hoping to compete in the event's varsity level again next time around. But for now she'll make due with competing for the Rebels once more this coming school year.

"I've been shooting my handguns with my dad down at the shooting range for most of my life," she said. "When I saw my school offered an opportunity to shoot I jumped at it."